Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone 7 which comes with 10 new features including the camera, design, parameter and the operating system. All these changes help to improve the user experience but inevitably will increase the difficulty in mobile forensics. So what on earth the iPhone7 changes will impact on mobile forensics? As we will see what Data Recovery Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province (Branch research institution of SalvationDATA Technology) researchers found below.
1. Data storage structure changes. After switching to iOS10, iPhone7 has some changes in the data storage structure, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty in mobile data extraction.
2. Storage capacity expansion. The max storage capacity of iPhone7 ranges up to 256GB. However, note that with the more storage space it requires heavier workload on data extraction. Hence it proposes higher demand for the forensics device’s data manipulation capabilities, speed and other hardware performance as well.
3. Data recovery. Recover deleted data has always been the tough problem obsessing the whole industry. As part of native applications of iPhone7, including Notes, Map, and iBooks, etc. can be deleted after an upgrade, it will make data recovery for the deleted data more difficult.
In regard to the great changes on iPhone7, the major mobile forensics manufacturers in the world all have been invested great time and efforts on it. According to a researcher from SalvationDATA, the latest tool Smart Phone Forensic System SPF is already capable of supporting iPhone7 and other iOS10 models’ data extraction, including iPone6s, iPhone6s plus, iPhone6, iPhoneSE, iPhone5s, iPhone5c, iPhone5. The extraction contents cover Messages, Contacts, Camera photos, Voice memo, Call history, WeChat and other Apps, which has provided a powerful technical support for iPhone forensics.
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